Welcome

2018 Annual Conference

“Compliance and Resistance: Discerning the Spirit”

November 8 – 10

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Cultural Center

135 Davidson Ave., Somerset, NJ

As professional care providers and clergy, we serve our patients, clients, and parishioners with our knowledge and expertise. We have an obligation to offer the most appropriate treatment and/or spiritual care we can in each situation. Our recommendations are informed by our training and experience, and are what we believe to be in the best interest of our patient, client, or parishioner.

However, each patient, client, or parishioner is endowed with autonomy and free will, and does not have to follow our advice. Every caregiver must discern the proper response when faced with what we consider to be resistance or non-compliance. Indeed, there is a natural tension between our recommendations for our patient/client/parishioner, and their autonomy and free will. This can be uncomfortable for us as professional caregivers and clergy, particularly when our training and experience give us special insight into the risks and potential consequences of noncompliance.

We are also, at times, the recipients of medical, psychological, and pastoral care. We can find ourselves in the position of deciding to follow medical, psychological, or pastoral advice. We may find ourselves being charged with noncompliance when we feel that to comply would go against our own judgment or faith understanding.

Discernment is necessary, at all levels, whether we are the caregiver or the recipient of care.

The Annual OCAMPR Conference will focus on the medical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of discerning the Spirit, in the compliance and resistance in those we serve, and in ourselves, as we seek to serve, guide, and assist.

ABOUT US

OCAMPR exists to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and promote Christian fellowship among healing professionals in medicine, psychology and religion. Members pursue an understanding of the whole person which integrates the basic assumptions of medicine, psychology and religion within the Orthodox Christian faith in educating and serving Church and community.

OCAMPR contributes to the spiritual sustenance and growth of helping and healing professionals who experience their Orthodox Christian faith as the center of their professional life and ministry. Inter-jurisdictional and endorsed by the Episcopal Assembly (formerly SCOBA), OCAMPR is for those who seek to better understand and experience the best relationship between theology and the healing arts and sciences, to better offer their services in the light of Christ’s truth and the Church’s healing wisdom.

Members share a love for Christ and the holistic view of personhood and sacredness inherent in Eastern Orthodoxy as it informs their professional lives and practices in medicine, nursing, mental health, psychology, ethics, theology, parish ministry, parish nursing, prison and community ministry, social services, and military, institutional and community chaplaincy.

FOR A COPY OF THE PUBLICATION OF PROCEEDINGS FROM THE 2015 CONFERENCE, “CAREGIVERS AS CONFESSORS AND HEALERS,” PLEASE PAY $19.95 VIA THE DONATE BUTTON AND THE BOOK WILL BE MAILED TO YOU.